Clients often experience anxiety as their body responds to danger – whether real or imagined.

And for some of our clients, when anxiety revs up, slowing it back down can take on a sense of emergency.

So what exactly is it that often keeps people from soothing anxiety once it begins to take hold?

According to Linda Graham, LMFT, it’s that they don’t know that they can. Not only that, they don’t know how.

In the video below, Linda takes us through four specific ways to help clients calm anxiety.

Take a look – it’s about 5 minutes.

This video was taken from the Next Level Practitioner training program where members receive a daily video full of practical insights from one of the top 25 experts in our field. That program is not open for new members right now, but if you want to be on a waiting list in case it opens up, please click here.

What tools do you use to help clients work through anxiety? Please leave a comment below.

In his holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens tells a moving story of transformation.

As the spirits of Past, Present, and Future visit the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge throughout the course of Christmas Eve, we see him learn to embrace a sense of compassion and generosity.

After his experience, Scrooge says:

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

Now whether you celebrate Christmas or embrace another tradition, it’s customary at this time of year to emphasize acts of compassion, giving, peace, and goodwill.

I think Dickens may have been on to something when he encouraged us to consider the lessons of the Past, Present, and Future.

Dickens was onto something when he encouraged us to consider the lessons of Past, Present, and Future.Click To Tweet

When I think about the work we do as practitioners, we’re often focused on helping people make peace with, and heal from a challenging past.

So much of that healing comes as we’re able to help our clients develop a more mindful, deeper sense of being present.

And when we help our clients heal, it changes not only their lives, but the lives of their family, and their children as well. This gives everyone a better possibility of being all they can be.

So ultimately, when we help one person heal it affects the community as well.

And that changes the world and creates a better future.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we can create a better future – not just during this season, but throughout the whole year.

I’ll have more to say about that soon. But in the meantime, I want to wish you the very best during this season of celebration, peace, and goodwill.

Now I’d like to hear from you. What are some ways you’re working to create a better future?

Heart failure is considered a progressive disorder. So a team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego designed a study to see if the practice of gratitude journaling might slow disease progression and symptom development, as well as improve patients’ quality of life.

The research team recruited 70 men and women who had been classified as Stage B HF for a period of at least 3 months. Researchers conducted pre-test assessments that included a six-item gratitude questionnaire, resting heart rate variability, and an inflammatory biomarker index.

The biomarkers they focused on are known to be associated with progression of heart failure.

Now this is important because, although there have been numerous studies on the benefits of practicing gratitude, many have focused on improving social and psychological well-being rather than physical health.

And most of these studies have relied on self-report rather than objective health measures.

Participants were randomly assigned to either an 8-week gratitude journaling intervention group or a control group where they continued to receive treatment as usual.

Members of the journaling group received instructions to record 3-5 things on a daily basis for which they were grateful.

Here’s what the researchers found at the end of 8 weeks:

Compared with the “treatment as usual” group, the gratitude group showed improved gratitude scores, which isn’t a surprise. But that’s not the whole story.

The gratitude group also showed an association with reduced inflammatory biomarker index scores and increased parasympathetic heart rate variability.

As always, it’s important to exercise caution when interpreting these kinds of results. We know that association is not the same as causation.

And the researchers themselves acknowledge the limitations of working with a small sample size. I hope they’ll follow up with a large-scale version of this study.

Still, the results are encouraging.

So I encourage you to celebrate thanks-giving – and not just for one day out of the year.

If you’d like to check out the study for yourself, you can find it in Psychosomatic Medicine, 78(6): 667-676.

Now I’d like to hear from you. What experience have you had with an intentional gratitude practice – either for yourself or that you recommended for a client? How did it turn out?

]]>http://www.nicabm.com/could-thanksgiving-be-the-healthiest-holiday-of-all/feed/3384606Changing Lives, One Well at a Timehttp://www.nicabm.com/changing-lives-one-well-at-a-time/
http://www.nicabm.com/changing-lives-one-well-at-a-time/#commentsFri, 17 Nov 2017 18:22:09 +0000http://www.nicabm.com/?p=84573

About a week ago, we held a Day of Donation. We decided that for one day, we’d donate everything we took in from the purchase of Gold Subscriptions to charity: water.

The response was overwhelming.

According to charity: water, it costs an average of $30 to give one person access to clean water. And this donation will provide clean water for 1,834 people.

That’s 1,834 people whose lives will be forever changed by access to safe, clean water.

That’s because water changes everything. To see what I mean, please check out this short video about the work charity: water does – it’s about 2 minutes.

You see, the majority of the people charity: water helps live in isolated rural areas – places where women and girls have to spend hours each day walking to collect water for their family.

That keeps girls out of school and takes up time that women could be using to earn money.

Not only that, the water they collect often carries diseases that make everyone sick.

But access to clean water creates opportunities for better education, income, and health – especially for women and girls.

So we’re grateful to everyone who purchased a Gold Subscription for the Treating Trauma Master Series on the Day of Donation, to help provide clean, safe drinking water for people who are desperately in need.

How about you? I always love to hear how folks are giving of their time, talent, or resources to help others. Please tell me about your favorite ways to give in the comments below.
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Now that we’ve wrapped up the program, I’d like to take a moment to thank you for tuning in.

38,961 practitioners joined us for one or more sessions of the Treating Trauma Master Series.

We believe the work you do with people who’ve experienced trauma is so important. That’s why we made it our mission to make this program available to as many practitioners as possible throughout the world.

So how did we do?

Well, at final count, we had practitioners join us from 100 countries.

Here’s a quick glimpse of the global community you’re now a part of:

We are truly thankful to all of the Gold Subscribers who supported our mission of bringing this important material to practitioners worldwide.

If you didn’t get a chance to tune in for the Treating Trauma Master Series but would like to see what all the buzz is about, it’s not too late – you can find out more right here.

Now I’d like to hear from you – how will you be using the ideas from the Treating Trauma Master Series in your work with clients? Please leave a comment in the space below (and feel free to share where you’re from, if you’d like).